Amanda Seyfried Is on the Fence About Letting Her 7-Year-Old Act: 'She's Got to Show Some Gumption' (Exclusive)

Unlike many entertainers, Amanda Seyfried lives outside of the limelight. Instead of Los Angeles or Manhattan, the 39-year-old star of Mama Mia! and Mean Girls calls Upstate New York home. She and her family—husband Thomas Sadoski and kids Nina, 7, and Thomas, 4—love being rooted in nature and spend their days tending to their farm full of animals.

Though Seyfried lives a low-key life—when she’s not at the likes of the Met Gala or off filming, that is (she’s currently on set of The Housemaid alongside Sydney Sweeney)—her kids are starting to become aware of what she does for a living. Her son writes songs that the two perform around the house and her daughter has expressed interest in acting. How does Seyfried feel about the possibility of her kids entering the industry?

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“I thought about [whether I’d be comfortable with that] more recently with Nina, because her friend has been auditioning and she does commercials and stuff,” Seyfried exclusively tells Parade. “…And so, my daughter’s like, ‘Oh, Mia’s an actor.’ I’m like, ‘I understand, but you gotta audition, you gotta be able to read well enough to be able to learn lines. You gotta memorize those lines, and you gotta focus, and you gotta really care about it. You can’t just wake up one day and decide you want to do it and then go do it. There’s a process. I started professionally when I was 10 and my first professional speaking role was when I was 15. It’s hard. You’re gonna be told no, and you don’t like being told no, you’re gonna be told no so many times you’re gonna want to quit. And it’s not easy. Period.’ So, it’s like those conversations.”

As a self-made star, the award-winning actress is also mindful of the “nepo baby” label that often accompanies actors’ kids.

Related: Will There Be a ‘Mamma Mia 3’?

“My success was generated on my own and without any help. And I know what I would have given for some help,” she says. “And so I understand both sides. I also understand seeing beauty in my own child … like the bias thing: Look at my kid!”

Still, Seyfried isn’t going out of her way to help her daughter get a foot in the door, at least not yet. “Something has to be generated inside of her for me to put her on this track or help her on this track,” Seyfried explains. “And what do you even do? Would I call my casting director friends and be like, ‘You got any roles for her?’ Not yet. I don’t feel comfortable doing that. She’s got to show some gumption. She’s gotta learn some stuff, and I’m just not ready to teach her yet. She has to show up more.”

In addition to singing and reveling in life on the farm (which includes caring for six big horses, a donkey, a pony, eight goats, three ducks, three cats, a lizard, a dog and 20 hens), Seyfried’s kids also enjoy playing in a cardboard cottage their mom helped to design, Make It Cute, a playhouse brand created to be fun for kids and stylish enough for adult spaces.

“We just wanted to make something that was multi-functional, that was a sustainable, earth-friendly product that looked really good and cozy,” Seyfried says of the idea behind the company, which she cofounded with friends Anne Hoehn and Maureen North. “We really had a lot of fun designing our homes and our spaces—from my first apartment to the farm. And it was getting away from us, because the kids and the kids’ toys and the clutter.” The founders recently celebrated their partnership with baby registry guru Babylist—a milestone Seyfried calls an absolute dream.

Also a dream? Life on the farm. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful world,” Seyfried says of her life upstate. “I really do love this area, and I love how close it is to the city, but how far away it is.”

“Kids riding the subway to school, that’s another experience that could teach them a lot,” she says. “But I think we can’t win them all. And they’ve got their benefits here, and they far outweigh city-living for me. I’m not a city person, and therefore I also want to have a good life. And they love it. They go to the city often enough. These kids are so privileged.”

Related: Amanda Seyfried’s Husband Makes Great Mac and Cheese! Find Out All About Her Marriage to Thomas Sadoski